My travel buddy left this morning, and I got on the road to Apollo Bay, on the Great Ocean Road. Thankfully we had parked in the correct parking lot and the fee to get out was only $24. Our first night here less than 10 hours of parking the fee was $65 (the most expensive parking I have ever had).
Luckily, I was oriented enough to find the way out of town. There was very light traffic as it is a Saturday and a holiday weekend. The weather was clear in Melbourne but got grayer the further south I went. There was a lot of traffic on the actually highway going south for the holiday weekend. Saw an old Caprice (with the steering wheel on the correct side of the vehicle). Lots of classic/vintage looking vehicles down under.
Once in Torquay (pronounced tor - key), I stopped at the supermarket, as this was the largest town in the area. It’s always fun to go to a grocery store and even better in a foreign country. They had some interesting items and again those $15 bananas (but I only got $7 worth).
Grabbed a Hawaiian pizza at a local place and took it to the beach. (Next time, a Hawaiian pizza but light on the ham.) I love to listen to the surf, so this was a great place for me to sit.
The weather was very gray out and overcast. I stopped along the road at Bell’s Beach, where they were having the Rip Curl pro-surf competition. Tons of people parking along the road etc. I got a great spot as someone was pulling out. As I was walking up, Craig joined me. He was alone also. His wife had just dropped him off and was going shopping. He told me this was the “Wimbledon” of surfing- ha ha. He is a meter reader from Melbourne with two kids who love Disneyworld. His daughter is recovering from cancer and is now in remission. He seemed like a very nice man. He even invited me to a “footy” game if I was back in Melbourne on a certain day. We went to the Rip Curl together.
It was only $8 to get in and you should have seen the crowd, varied for sure -- young and old, backpackers and the rich folks. At the first look out you could see people out there surfing (people who weren’t in the event, we found out later). Then off to the other side of the cliff was the competition and guys on jet skis (I think they were having more fun than the surfers). We got to watch the “expression” competition, I think it was between old surfers and the ones who didn’t make the finals. The waves were massive coming in and we descended the steep staircase to the beach area. The tide was coming in and lots of people had to move from their perches/seats to avoid the water. I had my garden shoes/gum shoes on and got wet at one point -- jeans and all. The surfers were very good and one did a lovely dive in as he was going down at one point right in front of a jet ski.
Also we got great views of the surfers, young and old, going out in the massive waves to “play” on the other side of the cliff. They had to paddle hard as the waves were very tough looking.
When we got to the top again, due to the tide. We got to see Kelly Slater and Kai Otton surf. Slater is from Florida and a big shot in surfing. He was very good and won the "expressions" comp. We watched the woman’s finals -- Sally Fitzgibbons and Carissa Moore. They were very excellent. You could see it from the clifftops and the big screen they had set up.
Going to many marathon/triathlon events with my cousin, who does some event planning and working at them, I found this set up very interesting. They had grandstand seating and behind that a big screen set up for viewing. Also a small closed off area for liquor (who would want to get trashed and not remember a big event still amazes me) was set up behind fences from the small concession area they had --- only three trucks for regular food. Of course they had the obligatory festival portapotties, which I thankfully did not have to visit. The event shop was very small and cramped with tons of people in it.
Craig and I got some water and watched the ladies finish -- they were tough. We got to see Sally Fitzgibbons accept her trophy (a large box type thing with a bell on it) and ring it. The motto is “you gotta win it to ring it”. So it was neat to be there to see this sweet little 20 year old accept her trophy and cry and beam and ring her bell -- You go girl. You could tell she was exhausted -- and the announcer was crying with her. It was great.
The traffic wasn’t that bad getting out and we encountered Andy (who reminded me of an old friend when he was much younger), a young backpacker from Belgium walking back to his car also. He needed to sell his car back to someone (business idea maybe??). He had driven around Australia by himself for almost 2 months so far. He had learned to surf in England and was so excited to come to Bell’s Beach as he had seen it on TV/internet.
For some reason, ever since I was a little girl and watched Gidget and the Beach Party Movies and listened to the Beach Boys, I have had a fascination with surfing. Tried it this past January and it was fun, but way to much work. But a great experience. It’s like the surfers are dancing on water.
Luckily I escaped the traffic headache with my excellent parking job, good karma I guess. And hit the Airey’s Inlet lighthouse at sunset. The view was amazing and I just stood and watched as the colors changed in front of me.
It might not have been the smartest thing to do as I had another hour plus drive ahead of me on a windy/bendy road, but I finally made it to Apollo Bay and the Beachfront Motel. Rex the owner met me at my car and told me the key was in the room, the heater on and some milk in the fridge (for coffee or tea).
My room was very nice -- had a little kitchenette with all the essentials. I walked the whole main street and found a nice card shop and lots of restaurants. Even one that was set up like a food court (interesting concept). After getting me a cheese toasty I turned in for the night listening to the waves crashing (and they were crashing that night) the rain falling and the numerous cars still attacking the Great Ocean Road.
No comments:
Post a Comment